Meetings

Monday, October 2,   7:00pm Meeting

This is a Zoom only meeting.  You may sign in beginning at about 6:45. 

Please join us for the October German Interest Group meeting

Learn about why your ancestors might have come to America.

"How Advertising Brought Our Ancestors to the Midwest"

This will be a Zoom only meeting (as will be the remaining fall and winter meetings).

It will begin at 7:00 PM CDT Monday 2 October.

Mark your calendar now:  a reminder with the Zoom link will follow for members. 

About the speaker:  Annette Burke Lyttle comes back to us with another great program.

Annette loves researching and uncovering facts, relationships, and the stories of our ancestors’ lives. She has been a full-time genealogist and family historian since 2012 under the name of Heritage Detective. She has spoken on a variety of genealogical topics at the national, state, and local level. Annette has a master’s degree in English from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University. She has taught research, analysis, and writing to college students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

About the program:  "How Advertising Brought Our Ancestors to the Midwest"  

Business owners, land speculators, and communities wishing to grow all turned to various forms of advertising to entice people to migrate to the Midwestern territories and states. Newspaper advertising, pamphlets, gazetteers, and books were aimed at prospective migrants from the eastern parts of the U.S. and prospective immigrants from Europe to get them to come and work, buy land, and settle in these sparsely-populated frontier areas. We'll look at what kinds of messages these ads used in order to make hard work and pioneer living seem attractive. Attendees will come away with an appreciation of how this particular spur to migration shaped the growth of the Midwestern region.

Future meetings:  first Monday of the month

November  6 David Bradford   RCGS   "What Did My Ancestor Die of?" 

December 4  Dr. Richard Lofthus    “German-American World War I experience”.  Based on the correspondence of Private John Warns, a first generation German immigrant. 

January 2024  No meeting.  Happy New Year

Web site:     gig-wi.com

Facebook:   www.facebook.com/GIGWisconsin

Note:  Meetings are held at 7:00 pm on the first Monday of the month except for January, July and September. GIG members will receive an email link to join the Zoom presentation prior to the meeting. Not a member? click here.